Fabricio Werdum out of PFL 6 and potentially longer

Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum (24-9-1, 1 NC) is not going to be competing at PFL 6 after all. Yesterday, The Professional Fight League announced their sixth event for the 2021 season.

PFL 6 was the second event of the year that would feature heavyweights and women’s lightweight. Werdum was slated for the co-main event of the evening where he was taking on Brandon Sayles (6-1).

Sayles was coming off of his huge win at PFL 3 over Mohammed Usman. As a reward, the PFL gave him the former UFC heavyweight champion. However, that fight is no longer going to take place.

MMA Fighting was the first to report that Fabricio Werdum has pulled out of the fight. Supposedly, he’s unable to compete after suffering some damage in his No Contest against Renan Ferreira (6-2, 1 NC) a month ago.

In that fight at PFL 3, Werdum locked up a triangle choke in the first round. It definitely appeared that Ferreira tapped, but the referee missed it. Ferreira escaped the choke and dropped bombs on Werdum which ended the fight.

Since then, the athletic commission overturned the fight to a No Contest. Werdum was looking to pick up his first PFL win, but it now appears that he’s going to have to wait.

PFL 6 Without Werdum

For now, PFL will move forward on June 25th without the former heavyweight champion. They still have some very solid fights on the card including Kayla Harrison (9-0) facing off against Cindy Dandois (16-6) in the main event.

Sayles will remain on the card and PFL is actively searching for a replacement opponent. It is unclear at this time how long Werdum will be out and whether or not he will compete during the rest of the 2021 season.

If Werdum cannot compete, it will be a massive blow after PFL made a big investment in him. Werdum’s first opponent in the promotion will take on the former PFL heavyweight champion Ali Isaev (9-0) in his first fight of the season. The rest of the card can be seen below.